Looking for a Fun Oscar Party to go to? Hollywood Theater Oscar Party is On!

The Hollywood Theater in Dormont is running their great Oscar party again this year. If you were on the fence about going out tonight, the weather (at least west of Pittsburgh) is pretty good and the Hollywood still has tickets for tonight. Dress up, don't dress up, but show up in Dormont tonight.

Even though the roads are pretty clear, do yourself a favor and don't take Potomac between Banksville and Belrose or Espy Streets. Take Hillsdale instead as it's much less steep. Free street parking tonight!

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I had a winning night at the party. I won one round of Oscar trivia and won candy. I later won the Oscar ballot pool for the evening, guessing 18 of the 24 Oscar winners (75%). Won two books & movie tickets.

What Should Win the Oscars, What Will Win the Oscars, 2014

As I've said before, I thought 2013 was an exceptional year for flicks. Most years, I'm really pissed off by some of the Oscar nominees, but, this year, I liked almost all of them. The performances were particularly strong.

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Actor in a Leading Role

Everyone in this category deserved their nominations, but Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips and Idris Elba for Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom did as well. For a great example of range, see Out of the Furnace and compare/contrast Christian Bale's performance there and in American Hustle. While I have not seen 12 Years a Slave, I think probably Ejiofor most deserves the Oscar, but I would not be upset to see McConaughey win for Dallas Buyers Club, as his performance was awonderful.

• Christian Bale in American Hustle
• Bruce Dern in Nebraska
• Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street
• Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave (should win)
• Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club (will win)

Actor in a Supporting Role

Barkhad Abdi was impressive in his first movie role in Captain Phillips, and Bradley Cooper continues to deliver well-nuanced roles. But Jared Leto came from out of left field in Dallas Buyers Club and he was great.

• Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips
• Bradley Cooper in American Hustle
• Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave
• Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street
• Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club (should win, will win)

Actress in a Leading Role

Amy Adams gave a wonderfully ferocious performance in American Hustle and does deserve the Oscar the most. Cate Blanchett gave a very good performance in Blue Jasmine, but it was just too clearly based on Vivien Leigh in Streetcar Named Desire. While people tend to ignore Sandra Bullock in Gravity, I found her performance in Gravity was as engaging the second time as it was the first.

• Amy Adams in American Hustle (should win)
• Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine (will win)
• Sandra Bullock in Gravity
• Judi Dench in Philomena
• Meryl Streep in August: Osage County

Actress in a Supporting Role

I loved June Squibb's raucous performance in Nebraska. While I liked Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle, she just won last year and June Squibb is going to be 85 this year and has been in the business for decades.

• Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine
• Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle
• Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave (will win)
• Julia Roberts in August: Osage County
• June Squibb in Nebraska (should win)

Animated Feature Film

Frozen as better than I expected, and, like Brave had really amazing design. However, I'd rather see The Wind Rises as Miyazaki never got the kind of acknowledgement from Hollywood that he deserves.

• The Croods Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco and Kristine Belson
• Despicable Me 2 Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri
• Ernest & Celestine Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner
• Frozen Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho (will win)
• The Wind Rises Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki (should win)

Cinematography

• The Grandmaster Philippe Le Sourd
• Gravity Emmanuel Lubezki (should win, will win)
• Inside Llewyn Davis Bruno Delbonnel
• Nebraska Phedon Papamichael
• Prisoners Roger A. Deakins

Costume Design

• American Hustle Michael Wilkinson (will win)
• The Grandmaster William Chang Suk Ping
• The Great Gatsby Catherine Martin
• The Invisible Woman Michael O’Connor (should win)
• 12 Years a Slave Patricia Norris

Directing

I think Directing/Picture will be a split this year between Cuaron and 12 Years a Slave. It's possible that it might split the other way, but that's less likely.

• American Hustle David O. Russell
• Gravity Alfonso Cuarón (should win, will win)
• Nebraska Alexander Payne
• 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen
• The Wolf of Wall Street Martin Scorsese

Documentary Feature

• The Act of Killing Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
• Cutie and the Boxer Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
• Dirty Wars Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
• The Square Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
• 20 Feet from Stardom Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers (should win, will win)

Documentary Short Subject

• "CaveDigger” Jeffrey Karoff
• "Facing Fear” Jason Cohen
• "Karama Has No Walls” Sara Ishaq
• "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed (should win, will win)
• "Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” Edgar Barens

Film Editing

• American Hustle Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten (should win, will win)
• Captain Phillips Christopher Rouse
• Dallas Buyers Club John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
• Gravity Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
• 12 Years a Slave Joe Walker

Foreign Language Film

• The Broken Circle Breakdown Belgium
• The Great Beauty Italy (should win, will win)
• The Hunt Denmark
• The Missing Picture Cambodia
• Omar Palestine

Makeup and Hairstyling

• Dallas Buyers Club Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews (should win, will win)
• Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa Stephen Prouty
• The Lone Ranger Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

Music (Original Score)

The Gravity score is quite different...except from The World's End, another science fictional movie score, also by Steven Price.

• The Book Thief John Williams
• Gravity Steven Price (should win, will win)
• Her William Butler and Owen Pallett
• Philomena Alexandre Desplat
• Saving Mr. Banks Thomas Newman

Music (Original Song)

Yes, "Let It Go" is very singable and it's been everywhere during the last few months. But I'd rather see "Ordinary Love," a somewhat more meaningful song than a teen pep anthem take the statue.

• "Happy” from Despicable Me 2 Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
• “Let It Go” from Frozen Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (will win)/li>
• “The Moon Song” from Her Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze/li>
• “Ordinary Love” from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson (should win)

Best Picture

I haven't seen 12 Years a Slave, but I believe the people who keep saying it's great and I will watch it once it hits cable for a reasonable price. I'm actually glad I didn't see Dallas Buyers Club in the theater because that, too was more intense than I imagined. I think 12 Years a Slave will get the Oscar, and in a year with so many high quality movies, that's saying quite a lot.

• American Hustle Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
• Captain Phillips Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca, Producers
• Dallas Buyers Club Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter, Producers
• Gravity Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman, Producers
• Her Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay, Producers
• Nebraska Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, Producers
• Philomena Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan and Tracey Seaward, Producers
• 12 Years a Slave Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen and Anthony Katagas, Producers (should win, will win)
• The Wolf of Wall Street Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Producers

Production Design

I found the production design for The Great Gatsby to be too over-the-top and operatic. I certainly liked the design of Gravity, and American Hustle captured the look and feel of the '70s. But Her was a subtle look into the future, with the constant images of a large city making the characters look ever more isolated.

• American Hustle Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
• Gravity Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
• The Great Gatsby Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
• Her Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena (should win, will win)
• 12 Years a Slave Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker

Short Film (Animated)

At first I predicted one of the other films, and then remembered the "Get a Horse" was the extremely clever short that played before Frozen. It was truly a unique, meta cartoon.

• “Feral” Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
• “Get a Horse!” Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim (should win, will win)
• “Mr. Hublot” Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
• “Possessions” Shuhei Morita
• “Room on the Broom” Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

Short Film (Live Action)

• “Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)” Esteban Crespo
• “Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)” Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
• “Helium” Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson (should win, will win)
• “Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)” Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
• “The Voorman Problem” Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

Sound Editing

• All Is Lost Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
• Captain Phillips Oliver Tarney
• Gravity Glenn Freemantle (should win, will win)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Brent Burge and Chris Ward
• Lone Survivor Wylie Stateman

Sound Mixing

• Captain Phillips Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
• Gravity Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro (should win, will win)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
• Inside Llewyn Davis Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
• Lone Survivor Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Visual Effects

• Gravity Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk and Neil Corbould
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
• Iron Man 3 Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
• The Lone Ranger Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
• Star Trek Into Darkness Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

These three awards are as close to a lock as any awards could be, particularly this one. The Visual Effects for gravity were truly amazing.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• Before Midnight Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
• Captain Phillips Screenplay by Billy Ray
• Philomena Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
• 12 Years a Slave Screenplay by John Ridley (should win, will win)
• The Wolf of Wall Street Screenplay by Terence Winter

Writing (Original Screenplay)

This may be the hardest category of them all. All of these movies had intelligent scripts. I really walked out of American Hustle wishing I could write the next script for David O. Russell. But while American Hustle was a great, in your face script (as was Dallas Buyers Club), Her (and Nebraska) were both extremely quiet.

• American Hustle Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell (should win, will win)
• Blue Jasmine Written by Woody Allen
• Dallas Buyers Club Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
• Her Written by Spike Jonze
• Nebraska Written by Bob Nelson

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Comments on the show.

Why 2013 Was a Lot Like 1939 and 1977 for Movie Lovers

I've seen yet another of the best movies of 2013, and it was stunning - Dallas Buyers Club. I've now seen seven of the nine Best Picture nominees, and will probably see 12 Years a Slave this week. The only one I really don't want to see is Wolf of Wall Street, so I might catch that on cable some day.

Increasingly, I think 2013 was the best year for movies since 1977, and may even rival 1939 for memorable, classic movies. Even a "lesser" movie like Her, the inclusion of which as a "Best Picture" nominee made some people puzzled, had intriguing performances and an intelligent look at how technology can take over some people's lives.

For many years, I've posted a lengthy article predicting the Oscars. In some ways, it may be harder than ever to predict this year, there have been so many excellent movies. Yes, it's likely 12 Years a Slave will take Best Picture and Gravity will take Best Director. But it could go off in so many directions.

I think movies like 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, American Hustle, Nebraska and Philomena will be talked about and rewatched in the way The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, Stagecoach and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. These are the movies we'll remember.

My Top 10 Movies of 2013

[[Updated 2014/01/27]] I have to change my list a little:

1. Gravity
2. American Hustle
3. In a World
4. Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
5. Her
6. Saving Mr. Banks
7. The World's End
8. Nebraska
9. Captain Phillips
10. Europa Report

Haven't seen Kill Your Darlings yet and hope to (but probably not before the Oscars).

I'd put Philomena, The Book Thief, Frozen, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Butler, Blue Jasmine, The Way Way Back, Much Ado About Nothing, Warm Bodies & Catching Fire in the next 10. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Don Jon didn't completely work but was a respectable first movie.

This was the year I gave up on big junk movies. No more Star Trek, no more comic book movies (except for maybe Iron Man). I saw maybe 6 of the top 10 grossing movies of 2013. I caught Pacific Rim on DVD and just found it silly.

In terms of movies made in Pittsburgh, there wasn't much released in 2013. I would like to have liked Out of the Furnace, and while it had excellent photography and acting (especially Christian Bale who then went on to play a radically different character in American Hustle) the script was, frankly, lame and overly violent.

And, sometimes, I can't watch movies that I know are good movies because they are too violent. So I haven't seen 12 Years a Slave as I know it is a very violent movie (as was, at times, Mandela). I will Netflix 12 Years when I can so I can put it on pause or skip ahead. I thought Steve McQueen's Shame was a great movie, but it was so hard to watch (and it was "only" about sex, not about violence and human ownership). I expect the Oscars will be a director/movie split between Gravity and 12 Years, but I'm still not 100% sure how it will split.

Steeltown Film Factory Script Competition Kickoff

Over the last few years, the kickoff for the Steeltown Film Factory Script Competition has gone from an informal meeting to an event at the Regent Square Cinema where this year's winner was shown. This year's winter was a charming script called "My Date with Adam," a science fictional rom com.

If you're interested in entering a short script, read the rules and write a script. The early bird deadline is 12/15.

In addition to talking to other finalists from this year, Carl Kurlander mentioned two upcoming feature films that will be shot here in the not too distant future:

• The Last Witch Hunter, starring Vin Diesel
• The Chair, a project being developed by producer Chris Moore

Why Science Fiction Movie Fans Should Go See Ender's Game

I don't like homophobes. I've marched with gay people multiple times and have been helping to fight for marriage equity.

So why in the world will I be going to see Ender's Game on opening night? It was written by Orson Scott Card who's become quite anti-Muslim, anti-gay and who's fighting gay marriage.

But, as a younger writer, Card wrote movingly about tolerance and acceptance of all kinds, in several books including Ender's Game. Many readers remembered this, and one of them, Rany Jazayerli, wrote a terrific essay on how important the book Ender's Game was to him while growing up.

I completely agree with the article. That's an awful lot that Orson Scott Card, the writer, used to understand about tolerance that he's completely lost sight of as he's gotten older.

I really enjoyed the book, have read generally good reviews of the movie and will go tonight. Normally, I do boycott homophobic movies/TV shows, but while Ender's Game was written by a homophobe the theme of the book is anything but (and the movie apparently shares this quality). As a movie fan, I want to support good science fiction movies, in hopes of seeing more movies like Gravity or Ender's Game and fewer movies starring comic book heroes or supernatural horror.

I will make a donation to a LBGTQ charity today to acknowledge OSC's homophobia. This idea came from a friend and it's spot-on. I went to Charity Navigator (which ranks charities) and gave $30 to the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and said the donation was made because "Orson Scott Card's homophobia raised this money."

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11/2/2013

I've seen Ender's Game, generally liked it and would give it a 7 on the IMDB scale.

I hadn't read Ender's Game in about 25 years so seeing the movie was fascinating. In many ways, the movie felt more like a post-9/11 movie given the societal paranoia the movie makes clear (and seeing the movie made me remember the book much more clearly). While the movie is flawed (Harrison Ford's part was both written and acted oddly), it's definitely worth seeing. Asa Butterworth as Ender was excellent and the effects are very, very good. People who want the movie to do badly at the box office are making a point that it's a bad movie, which it is not.

Point Park University's Oklahoma and Shirley Jones

I normally keep this blog focused on issues around movies and movie casting, but want to diverge from that a little bit and talk mostly about a classic American musical. Oklahoma is currently being performed by Point Park University's Conservatory Theatre Company at the Pittsburgh Playhouse through October 27th. It's an excellent production, with strong singers and inventive set design. Well, it seemed inventive to me as I'd never seen a live production of Oklahoma before last night. Perhaps it's the same production design they've done since the 1940s, but it looked inventive to me.

Among the singers, Kirsten Lynn Hoover (Laurey) and Jorie Ann Kosel (Ado Annie) were particularly noteworthy, but all of them were very good.

I heard about this production a few weeks ago, when Patrick Cassidy (the director) was on Essential Pittsburgh with his mother, Shirley Jones. Jones was from the Pittsburgh area and used to attend a summer high school program at Point Park before she became the quintessential Rogers & Hammerstein musical star of the '50s. Between never having seen Oklahoma live and hearing that Jones was coming to opening night, I bought a ticket (and one advantage of going to this play alone - I got a single seat in the second row). I grew up on musicals - my mom's favorite song to sing around the house when I was very little was "People Would Say We're In Love" (and, in those days, Mom's voice was similar to Shirley Jones'). Mom and Dad also collected albums of musicals, so I knew the music to the movie of Oklahoma cold from the time I was about eight. So it was beyond cool to see Jones come on stage after the show and talk about how thrilled she was about the production.

Even on the future nights when Shirley Jones isn't in the audience, seeing this stage production of Oklahoma is definitely worth your while.

Senator Dominic Pileggi Introduces an Uncapped Film Tax Credit Bill!

Senator Pileggi tweeted today:

#PASenate Finance Cmte, chaired by @SenatorBrubaker, approved my SB1035 to #UncapPA Film Tax Credit. Video & info: http://finance.pasenategop.com/2013/10/02/senate-bills-703-704-1035/

So the good news is that Senate Bill 1035 has passed an initial committee vote, and will be voted on by the full Senate later.

Write to your state senator and encourage him or her to vote for SB 1035 to bring more jobs and movie money to Pennsylvania.

10/3 addition: While the bill has passed the Finance Committee, it still needs to be voted on by the Appropriations Committee before it can go to the Senate, and it has to pass in the Senate before it can move on to the House. The Finance Committee members who voted for uncapping the film tax credit were Blake, Browne, Greenleaf, Hutchinson, Smith, Tepletz, Wozniak, Brukabker & Scarnati and the senators voting against it were Vance and Eichelberger. If your Senator voted for it, drop him or her a note to say "Thanks!"

Correction: Vin Diesel's The Last Witch Hunter IS Coming to Pittsburgh

On 9/27, I published this after having a disagreement with a local movie worker about whether or not The Last Witch Hunter was filming in Pittsburgh or somewhere else:

 

People hope and plan for movies to be shot in the Pittsburgh area, but that does not always come to pass.

Take Frank or Francis or the YA movie Glimmer. Both rumored to shoot here. But it looks like neither is coming this way.

So the next major movie rumored to be coming to Pittsburgh but is not (at least not in any big way) is Vin Diesel's The Last Witch Hunter. This movie just got a pile of money to be shot in Canada, so it will be shot in Canada.

It's too bad, but movies will always follow the money...err, tax credits. It doesn't matter how experienced the crews are, how willing the extras are, how many different kinds of locations can be shot in a fairly small geographic area. The only thing that matters is who's giving out the tax credits.

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10/2

Well, I goofed. The article I linked to said that movie deals had been made in Toronto (at the Toronto International Film Festival), not that movie deals had been made to shoot in Toronto. Today, the Pittsburgh Business Times had a article saying that The Last Witch Hunter is expected to film in the Pittsburgh area early next year.

So it would be great to see a major movie shot in Pittsburgh next year, and it sounds like The Last Witch Hunter will be. My sincere apologies, I hate publishing incorrect information.

Foxcatcher Pushed Back to 2014, Teaser Trailer Is Out

So, there's good Foxcatcher news - the teaser trailer is finally out.

It looks and sounds great!

But, for those of us on the impatient side, there's bad news too - it's been pushed back to 2014.